A known rawhide for a dog is made from animal hide, particularly from cow hide. Cow hide from a tannery is cleaned so that it does not have any meat or other undesirable deposits. As part of the cleaning process, the cow hide is washed by water, delimed, degreased, bleached and washed again. The cleaned hide is then dried, and then cut to pieces. The cut pieces are formed into predetermined shape, such as a roll having the general shape of a bone.
Next, flavors and colors are added by basting the rolled hide piece under static conditions, i.e., without agitation or other active means of speeding up infusion. The pre-formed and pre-dried rawhide is then dried a second time.
This process and the resulting product have several disadvantages. First, the flavors and colors form a coating only to the outer surface of the product. Another disadvantage is that even on the outer surface, the coating is uneven, giving the product an esthetically undesirable and unpleasant appearance. A third disadvantage is that the process requires two different drying steps. Therefore the process is time consuming, inefficient and wastes energy.